Gayle continues to be the Most Valuable Player in IPL 6

Last updated on: May 26, 2013 16:11 IST

Gayle’s sixes got bigger, Watson played with a passion for Rajasthan Royals that is harder to spot when he plays for Australia, Mike Hussey made you wonder why he retired so soon, James Faulkner gave indications that he might seriously trouble England in the Ashes series, and Dwayne Bravo left you wondering if he bowls better than he bats, observes Purnendu Maji and Srinivas Bhogle.

It has been a long and bittersweet IPL6. Most of us are probably happy that it is ending.

It is sad that the towel in Sreesanth’s pocket might be IPL6’s most lingering memory. But there were some outstanding cricketing performances too. Gayle’s sixes got bigger, Watson played with a passion for Rajasthan Royals that is harder to spot when he plays for Australia, Mike Hussey made you wonder why he retired so soon, James Faulkner gave indications that he might seriously trouble England in the Ashes series, and Dwayne Bravo left you wondering if he bowls better than he bats.

Virat Kohli showed that he has mastered practically every batting skill, although he still has to learn that captaincy is more than just gritting your teeth and scowling continually through a stubble. And Harbhajan Singh showed that he still retains his bowling skills especially when his former mate Anil Kumble eggs him on.

Sadly, there were also some unhappy pointers: Sehwag lost his confidence, and his strike rate, Yuvraj Singh lost his motivation, Lasith Malinga lost his lethal yorker, Mahela Jayawardene lost his resolve, and Kumar Sangakkara seemed to lose all interest.

The table below shows IPL6’s fifty most valuable players based on the MVPI. The most valuable player index (MVPI) collapses a player’s batting, bowling and fielding performances into a one-dimensional ‘run equivalent’. The best MVPI scores are obtained if a player scores a lot of runs at a high strike rate, takes a lot of wickets at a low economy rate or is responsible for the most number of catches and stumpings. The higher the MVPI, the better is the player’s performance.

Player's Name

Team

From

Runs

S/R

W

Eco

M

MVPI

Offered (US $)

PVI

1

Chris Gayle

RCB

WI

708

156.3

3

10

16

864

550000

637

2

Shane Watson

RR

AUS

543

142.9

13

7.2

16

851

1300000

1528

3

Michael Hussey

CSK

AUS

732

129.8

0

-

16

764

425000

556

4

Virat Kohli

RCB

IND

634

138.7

0

-

16

727

1800000

2476

5

Suresh Raina

CSK

IND

548

150.5

1

11.5

17

700

1300000

1857

6

Dwayne Bravo

CSK

WI

106

117.8

28

7.8

17

617

200000

324

7

James Faulkner

RR

AUS

57

100.0

28

6.8

16

613

400000

653

8

Thisara Perera

SRH

SL

233

142.9

19

8

16

604

675000

1118

9

Harbhajan Singh

MI

IND

102

143.7

22

6.6

18

591

1300000

2200

10

MS Dhoni

CSK

IND

398

167.2

0

-

17

579

1800000

3109

11

Rohit Sharma

MI

IND

536

132.7

0

4.5

18

570

2000000

3509

12

Sunil Narine

KKR

WI

21

110.5

22

5.5

16

563

700000

1243

13

Dale Steyn

SRH

SA

53

147.2

19

5.7

17

549

1200000

2186

14

Kieron Pollard

MI

WI

360

144.6

9

9.6

17

534

900000

1685

15

David Miller

KXI

AUS

418

164.6

0

-

12

529

100000

189

16

Dinesh Karthik

MI

IND

489

127.0

0

-

18

529

900000

1701

17

Jacques Kallis

KKR

SA

311

96.6

16

7.4

16

507

1100000

2170

18

Ravindra Jadeja

CSK

IND

201

151.1

13

7.4

17

506

2000000

3953

19

Amit Mishra

SRH

IND

89

92.7

21

6.4

17

504

300000

595

20

Vinay Kumar

RCB

IND

70

159.1

23

8.2

16

494

1000000

2024

21

AB de Villiers

RCB

SA

360

164.4

0

-

14

476

1100000

2311

22

Aaron Finch

PWI

AUS

456

135.7

1

12.3

14

471

300000

637

23

Stuart Binny

RR

IND

293

147.2

6

6.8

17

464

66000

142

24

Mitchell Johnson

MI

AUS

38

111.8

22

7.3

16

455

300000

659

25

Azhar Mahmood

KXI

ENG

196

127.3

15

7.5

11

451

200000

443

26

David Warner

DD

AUS

410

126.9

0

-

16

429

750000

1748

27

Yusuf Pathan

KKR

IND

332

138.3

1

8.1

16

427

2100000

4918

28

Robin Uthappa

PWI

IND

434

117.0

0

-

16

426

2100000

4930

29

Ajinkya Rahane

RR

IND

488

106.6

1

-

18

425

44000

104

30

Dwayne Smith

MI

WI

414

122.8

2

11.8

12

420

100000

238

31

Rahul Dravid

RR

IND

471

110.8

0

-

18

411

500000

1217

32

Kevon Cooper

RR

WI

39

177.3

19

8.3

14

406

50000

123

33

Mohit Sharma

CSK

IND

0

0.0

19

6.4

14

381

22000

58

34

Adam Gilchrist

KXI

AUS

294

128.4

1

0

13

364

900000

2473

35

Gautam Gambhir

KKR

IND

406

118.4

0

-

16

363

2400000

6612

36

R Ashwin

CSK

IND

26

83.9

15

6.7

17

347

850000

2450

37

Yuvraj Singh

PWI

IND

238

125.3

6

6.9

13

347

1800000

5187

38

Lasith Malinga

MI

SL

9

56.3

18

7.3

16

341

500000

1466

39

Brad Hodge

RR

AUS

293

134.4

0

3

17

340

475000

1397

40

Darren Sammy

SRH

WI

174

131.8

8

7.5

10

339

425000

1254

41

Eoin Morgan

KKR

ENG

307

127.9

0

-

14

334

350000

1048

42

Praveen Kumar

KXI

IND

47

120.5

12

6.6

15

324

800000

2469

43

Irfan Pathan

DD

IND

142

93.4

10

7.4

15

310

1900000

6129

44

Bhuvneshwar Kumar

PWI

IND

52

73.2

13

6.5

16

310

44000

142

45

Parthiv Patel

SRH

IND

294

115.3

0

-

13

304

650000

2138

46

Virender Sehwag

DD

IND

295

126.6

0

9

13

298

1800000

6040

47

Sachin Tendulkar

MI

IND

287

124.2

0

-

14

298

1800000

6040

48

Shikhar Dhawan

SRH

IND

311

122.9

0

-

10

297

300000

1010

49

Pragyan Ojha

MI

IND

1

33.3

15

7.3

15

296

500000

1689

50

Karan Sharma

SRH

IND

85

98.8

11

6.6

13

296

44000

149

We can also define a second index: paisa vasool index (PVI). To obtain a player’s PVI we divide his total money offered by his MVPI. So the PVI estimates how many dollars the franchise owner pays the player for every ‘run’ scored. The lower the PVI, the greater the value offered by the player.

Notice that most top Indian players have high PVI values. There’s a story there, and a worrying one. Established Indian players get paid way too much because of the requirement of 7 Indians in the playing eleven, and uncapped Indians get paid way too little because of the silly rule that they can’t make it to the auction.

If we drop this rule, allow 5 non-Indians in the playing eleven, and legalize betting, IPL could still continue to be one of cricket’s favourite and wondrous things.